I guess this can go here, since I don't think we have a Gilbert thread.
EDIT: I should also note that Gilbert was ranked 17th in ESPN's ownership rankings (
http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/12565861/2015-front-office-rankings-top-owners). As with their other rankings this week, they don't provide any reasoning for the rankings (Which isn't to necessarily say that he deserves to be at the top, but the guy does spend freely even if he is too hands on (Although Cuban is third on that list).)
http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/12564526/dan-gilbert-growing-influence-cleveland-cavaliers
CLEVELAND -- Ten years ago this month, Dan Gilbert bought the
Cleveland Cavaliers for about $375 million. But the star of the news conference announcing the sale wasn't Gilbert; it was singer and new part-owner Usher, whose new hit "Yeah" blasted from speakers as the event started.
Usher's role was to bring a celebrity face to the franchise, as was fashionable at the time, and he certainly played the part well.
A decade later when Gilbert is in the room, it is Usher who is the lesser name, at least in Cleveland. The developments surrounding
LeBron James' departure to the
Miami Heat in 2010 turned him into a somewhat controversial figure. In Cleveland, however, Gilbert won over many supporters for life; for years he kept a binder filled with letters that poured in from them. A successful campaign to build casinos in Ohio also created the typical political trench warfare in some corners.
Now, the 53-year-old owner enjoys a lofty approval rating among Cavs fans and Ohioans. Things are going so well these days that when (since-denied) rumors surfaced that
Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam was interested in selling the team so he could buy his home-state
Tennessee Titans, callers on local talk shows asked for Gilbert to buy the Browns.
There's also this: Gilbert got LeBron James back. Whatever the qualification or circumstance involved, at the end of the day, James sat down with Gilbert last July and then announced he was coming home.
When Gilbert bought the Cavs in 2005, his net worth was estimated at $800 million. In its annual list released this month, Forbes now estimates Gilbert's net worth at north of $4.7 billion, as his empire has expanded from mortgages and venture capital to casinos, real estate, consumer products, tech, minor league sports franchises and a basketball team currently estimated to be worth more than $900 million.
In short, it's been some decade for Gilbert.
As his businesses and popularity have grown, so has his involvement in the Cavs' day-to-day operations, according to numerous sources inside and outside the organization. Even as he has withdrawn a little publicly, Gilbert has become one of the most hands-on owners in the league.
"If you had a 1-to-10 scale of an owner's involvement [
Dallas Mavericks owner] Mark Cuban would be a 10," said one prominent league agent. "Dan would be a 9."
Gilbert, who lives in suburban Detroit but regularly jets over Lake Erie to attend home games, is known to monitor everything from the design of his team's jerseys to what is on the scoreboard during timeouts, and even how certain graphics are presented on the team's TV broadcasts.
As he's gotten more comfortable, informed and experienced as the seasons under his watch have passed, it has also become usual for Gilbert to be on the front line for the Cavs' personnel moves -- trade talks, contract negotiations and the draft process -- alongside his front office.
He was alone when he went to meet with James in Miami last year to make the most important recruiting pitch of his tenure.
When general manager David Griffin held a pivotal meeting with
Kevin Love and his agent last summer before making a trade for him, Gilbert was the other man in the room.
It is not unusual for Gilbert to speak directly to an agent or to up the ante in trade talks by calling an opposing owner, sources said.
But Gilbert disagrees with the idea that he's heavily involved in basketball decisions.
"I don't think that's accurate," Gilbert said. "The way I look at it is it's the owner's job to say yes before you say no. I believe an owner is there to set the philosophy and to establish the culture but you let your guy pull the triggers."
Here's a philosophy and culture Gilbert has inspired: spending on talent. Between 2007 and 2010, Gilbert paid more than $43 million in luxury taxes. In 2011, he cleared taking on the $27 million left on Baron Davis' contract to get the draft pick that became
Kyrie Irving. During rounds of negotiations with the
Los Angeles Clippers, Gilbert was the rigid one insisting that the pick had to be totally unprotected.
A year ago this week, the team signed Scotty Hopson, who went undrafted in 2011 and was at that point playing in Turkey, for $1.35 million for just seven games. He played seven minutes total. Some wondered what the team was doing until a late-night transaction after the NBA draft, when the Cavs used the nonguaranteed second year of Hopson's deal to trade for
Brendan Haywood, who has an unusual but potentially valuable $10 million nonguaranteed contract for the 2015-16 season that the Cavs are plotting to use this summer.
This season the Cavs did something that's never been seen in the NBA. The team went from $23 million
under the salary cap in July to $18 million
over the cap and into the luxury tax in the same season. This had never been seen before and, based on the structure of the collective bargaining agreement, would seem to be nearly impossible. But Griffin's front office used about every exception and manipulation imaginable, and all of it was green-lit by Gilbert.
It's how the Cavs were able to add talent like
Timofey Mozgov,
Iman Shumpert and
J.R. Smith in the midst of the season despite trading only one player,
Dion Waiters, with a guaranteed contract. Griffin and his staff assembled those deals over the course of months of talks and strategizing. But things weren't finalized until Gilbert got involved on an ownership level to finish the deal, sources said.
"When I walk in, Griff and his guys have hundreds of iterations on white boards. They find the opportunities," Gilbert said. "We push creativity and innovation. It's a small industry, and you have to find things on the fringes and edges."
As they struggled to gain footing after losing James in 2010, the Cavs made some roster mistakes. The drafting of
Anthony Bennett No. 1 overall and the signing of Andrew Bynum last year being prime examples. As is common in the NBA, there's always hindsight finger-pointing in organizations following failed moves. The Cavs are no different in this regard. But what is clear is that Gilbert, whether he wants it known publicly or not, is frequently in the thick of it all.
As he's gotten more involved over the years, though, he's cut back his visibility on social media and limited his interactions with the media. He was the driving force in the hiring of David Blatt as head coach last year but did not attend his news conference or the one held when the team announced the acquisition of Love. There was no news conference held when James signed. He did not attend the news conference when Griffin was named GM. Earlier in his tenure, Gilbert was always front and center in these types of moments.
"Every owner is more involved than they show publicly," said one league official who knows Gilbert well. "But Dan has worked hard to get the organization to where he wants it."
Something is working. After an arduous rebuilding process over the past four years, the return of James and the deployment of stockpiled assets has built what is probably the most potent team in Gilbert's time as owner. That includes the two 60-win teams from James' first tour, which had brilliant moments but did not have the depth of talent this current roster boasts.
"I think when you get a bunch of reasonably intelligent people in a room and you talk about it, you usually build a consensus," Gilbert said.
"We've learned a few things over the last 10 years."
